VANCOUVER Aug 2 (Reuters) - Enbridge Inc said on
Tuesday it had formed a joint venture with Marathon Petroleum
Corp to take a minority stake in a holding company that
owns 75 percent of the Bakken Pipeline System.

Enbridge, through its subsidiary Enbridge Energy Partners,
will pay $1.5 billion for what will amount to a 27.6 percent
stake in the pipeline system, which is set to carry oil from the
Bakken region to Midwestern refineries and on to the Gulf Coast.
Marathon will pay $500 million for its smaller share.

"This will provide our shippers the ultimate potential to
reach the eastern USGC (United States Gulf Coast), which has
been a strategic priority for us," Guy Jarvis, Enbridge's
executive vice president for liquids pipelines, said in a
statement.

The Bakken Pipeline System is made up of two pipeline
projects - the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Energy Transfer
Crude Oil Pipeline - both of which are expected to be in service
by year end.

The deal involves the Enbridge-Marathon joint venture paying
$2 billion to Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco
Logistics Partners for a 49 percent stake in the holding
company that owns 75 percent of the system.

Phillips 66 owns the remaining 25 percent of the
Bakken Pipeline System. Once in operation, Sunoco Logistics will
be the pipeline operator.

The all-cash deal is expected to close in the third quarter
of 2016.
(Reporting by Julie Gordon; Editing by Andrew Hay)